(4.20) Cinema for Stoners

In honor of the 420 holiday, we've asked film critic Ed Johnson-Ott to recommend 10 films to enjoy while high. His picks include old and new favorites that should keep you engaged whether you're in the mood to groove on aliens, philosophy or The Beatles.

Waking Life
Dreams within dreams. Richard
Linklater's superb 2001 philosophical film is talky in the best way,
drifting from conversation to conversation, presenting an array of
intriguing ideas passionately expressed, with the mundane and the
profound all jumbled up. The visuals are wonderful: live-action
footage rotoscope-animated to create an enhanced reality. Waking Life
is a joy to experience. Let it wash over you. And do see it again
when you're in a more down-to-earth state of mind. It'll lift you
back up.

Yellow Submarine
The Beatles were barely involved in the
making of this 1968 cartoon treat. Their contribution to the movie is
a brief, disinvolved live-action cameo at the end. The voice actors
portraying The Beatles are pretty bad, and the puns are real
groaners. Doesn't matter, because the fairy tale is packed with
dazzling animated wonders set to Beatles' songs. Yellow Submarine is
a hallucinogenic feast of sights, sounds and silly blather.

Mars Attacks!
Tim Burton's 1996 comic alien invasion
movie, based on an infamous series of trading cards from the '60s, is
a riotous celebration of anarchy, or maybe just interplanetary bad
manners. The humans in the movie are a mess – note the fact
that none of the authority figures can make a coherent speech –
and the computer-animated Martians are maniacal, delightful brats.
Hey, the movie has a scene where Pierce Brosnan – his
disembodied head being held by mechanical tongs – flirts with
Sarah Jessica Parker, whose head has been grafted onto the body of a
chihuahua!

Zardoz
Want to know how confused the studio
executives were by Zardoz? I saw it in NYC when it opened in 1974 and
ushers passed out explanatory brochures to those waiting in line.
It's not that complicated: In the future, effete immortals live in
lush seclusion, while the barbaric hordes outside the periphery
shield are controlled by the false god Zardoz, with assists from
gun-toting thugs wearing red diapers. The fun begins when curious
thug Zed, played by Sean Connery, sneaks past the barrier. A
near-naked primitive in neo-Eden – what fun! John Boorman
(Deliverance) wrote and directed this pompous, playful, often funny
exercise.

Beetlejuice
Tim Burton's 1988 – why do I keep
telling you the years of these movies. Years don't matter when you're
high! Anyhoo dude, the film is a bizarre dark comedy about a deranged
dead guy who exorcises the living. Michael Keaton stars, with Alec
Baldwin, Geena Davis and Winona Ryder. Very weird, very entertaining.

The Big Lebowski
There's a music video in this beloved
Coen brothers movie (did you know there are annual Big Lebowski
conventions – conventions!) that involves Jeff Bridges as the
Dude (who abides, in case you haven't heard), bowling, the cosmos and
the song “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition
Was In)” by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. Need I say
more?

Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece is
an epic journey into insanity – in this case represented by a
US Army special operations officer (Martin Sheen) sent on a secret
mission into Cambodia during the Vietnam War to take out a rogue
Colonel (Marlon Brando) who has established himself as a god. The mix
of images, acting and music on the trip is stunning, often
horrifying, and unforgettable. Best keep a copy of Yellow Submarine
handy in case this freaks you out.

Altered States
Sci-fi with some seriously whacked-out
visuals. William Hurt gets high in a sensory deprivation tank and we
get to watch his visions. After a while, elements of the trips start
manifesting themselves in the “real” world. The
overwrought climax is great, so cool that a-ha ripped it off for
their classic video, “Take On Me.”

They Live
This deliciously clunky John Carpenter
flick about alien invaders is really a deliciously ponderous
commentary on society. The secret messages will make you go “oooh.”
The five-plus minutes fight scene between Roddy Piper and Keith David
will make you wonder if your sense of time has been fucked-up
forever. Plus you get to hear Piper say, “I have come here to
chew bubblegum and kick ass ... and I'm all out of bubblegum.”

Run Lola Run
Red-headed tough girl Lola (Franka
Potente) has 20 minutes to save her boyfriend. The film presents
three runs with different outcomes. Never mind that and don't worry
about the subtitles. This is one of the most kinetic movies ever
made. Jump in.